Is firewood in Nepal renewable?

Biomass energy is the energy stored in organic matter of plant and animal origin (wood, crop residue, animal dung, energy crops, organic waste). Plants store solar energy by photosynthesis; burning, gasifying or digesting the biomass releases this energy as heat, gas or electricity.

$$6\text{CO}_2 + 6\text{H}_2\text{O} \xrightarrow{\text{sunlight}} \text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6 + 6\text{O}_2$$

Is biomass renewable?

Yes, conditionally. Biomass is renewable because:

• New plants grow every season or every few years using sunlight, water and CO₂.
• The CO₂ released on burning is roughly the CO₂ the plant absorbed while growing, so the carbon cycle is closed.
• Dung, crop residue and organic waste are produced continuously.

It stays renewable only if the rate of use is not greater than the rate of regrowth (sustainable harvesting). If forests are cut faster than they grow, biomass behaves like a depleting resource.

Firewood in Nepal

• Traditional biomass (firewood, dung, crop residue) supplies the largest share of Nepal's total energy, well over half (as per WECS energy synopsis reports). Firewood alone is the biggest part, used mainly for cooking and space heating in rural households.
• Where it is sustainable: in the mid-hills, community forest user groups manage the harvest and forest cover has been recovering. Firewood taken from such managed forests, as dead branches, or from farm trees is renewable.
• Where it is not sustainable: near dense settlements, in the Terai and in high mountain areas (where trees grow slowly), harvesting exceeds regrowth, causing deforestation, soil erosion and landslides.
• Traditional open stoves have low efficiency (about 10–15%), so more wood is burnt for the same useful heat. Indoor smoke causes respiratory disease, mainly in women and children.
• Collecting firewood takes a lot of time and slows the shift of rural households to modern energy.

Justification

Firewood in Nepal is renewable in principle, but present use is only partly sustainable. To keep it renewable:

1. Promote improved cooking stoves (ICS) and biogas (AEPC programmes).
2. Expand community forestry and plantation of fast-growing trees.
3. Replace firewood with electric cooking (induction) from hydropower where grid supply exists.
4. Use briquettes and gasifiers to raise efficiency.